The present invention relates to a hand-held electronic appliance, and particularly, to a hand-held electronic appliance with a magnifying device for magnifying the image on the display of the hand-held electronic appliance.
As electronic technology advances, the size of an electronic appliance becomes increasingly compact. Especially, hand-held electronic appliances tend to be smaller and smaller and convenient to be carried with than ever. For example, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and cell phones are popular because of their dainty features and lightness. Therefore, the producers always try their best to reduce the sizes of the electronic appliances.
A hand-held electronic appliance typically comprises at least two essential components, one of which is circuit elements used to control the functions of the hand-held electronic appliance, and the other is a display used to show the information to be revealed by the hand-held electronic appliance. Therefore, it is obvious that the size of a hand-held electronic appliance depends on the size of the circuit elements and/or the size of the display.
A Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), as a typical hand-held electronic appliance, is depicted in FIG. 1, which has a main body 1 including a plurality of circuit elements inside the housing 11 and a display 10 on the external surface of the housing 11. Nowadays, the space occupied by the circuit elements has been easily reduced to a significant extent. The display 10 of the hand-held electronic appliance, however, cannot be further minified in view of the limitation of the user""s vision. In other words, the overall area of the hand-held electronic is unable to be minified without reducing the area of the display, even if the area of the circuit elements is minimized.
Therefore, an invention able to reduce the area of the display is the solution to minify the hand-held electronic.
An object of the present invention is to provide a hand-held electronic appliance with a minified but clear display.
In an aspect of the present invention, a hand-held electronic appliance having a small display comprises a main body, a connecting element and a magnifying device. The display is mounted on the main body. The connecting element is coupled to the main body by a first end thereof, and to the magnifying device by a second end thereof. In an operational mode, the magnifying device is switched to be positioned between the display and user""s eyes to magnify the image on the display in order that the user can see the image clearly. By the use of the magnifying device, the size of the display can be reduced.
In an embodiment, the connecting element comprises a first link and a second link pivotally connected to each other. The first link and the second link are further pivotally connected to the main body and the magnifying device, respectively.
In another embodiment, each of the main body and the magnifying device includes a series of through holes, and the connecting element is an elongated helix strip penetrating through the through holes to be coupled with the main body and the magnifying device. In the operational mode, the connecting element, i.e. the elongated helix strip, allows the magnifying device to pivot to a position between the display and the user""s eyes.
In another embodiment, the connecting element includes a flexible portion physically interfaced between the main body and the magnifying device. In the operational mode, the flexible portion is bent to have the magnifying device positioned between the display and the user""s eyes.
In another embodiment, the connecting element includes slits and salient bumps. The slits respectively are arranged on outer surface of opposite sides of the main body, and the salient bumps respectively are fixed onto inner surface of opposite sides of the magnifying device. Alternatively, the slits are arranged onto inner surface of opposite sides of the magnifying device, and the salient bumps are fixed on outer surface of opposite sides of the main body. In the operational mode, the salient bumps slide along the slits to place the magnifying device between the display and user""s eyes.
In another aspect of the present invention, a hand-held electronic appliance having a small screen comprises a main body with a first magnetic polarity and a magnifying device with a second magnetic polarity. The screen is mounted on the main body. The second magnetic polarity is in opposition to the first magnetic polarity so that, in an operational mode, the magnifying device can be attached to the main body by a magnetic force, and positioned between the screen and user""s eyes. Because the user can observe the magnified image on the screen via the magnifying device, the size of the screen can be properly reduced.
For example, the hand-held electronic appliance can be a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a Pocket PC, a cell phone or an electronic dictionary.
Preferably, the magnifying device includes a convex lens. The size of the convex lens is smaller than the display and the convex lens is movable relative to the display.